‘Nashville’ Renewed for Third Season – What the Cast Said

There were rumors that ABC’s country music primetime soap, Nashville, might not get renewed for another season. Due to not-great ratings and reviews, it was touch-and-go there for a little while. The decision came down to the wire but ABC’s co-president Ben Sherwood announced via Twitter that the original music filled-drama has been renewed for a third season. The breaking news came late Friday evening, May 9.

“Congratz and welcome back for Season 3 to @Nashville_ABC @conniebritton @CharlesEsten @CallieKhouri, the whole Nashville team and loyal fans,” he tweeted at 11:36 p.m. EST.

One of the two lead actresses, Hayden Panettiere, retweeted a comment by Nashville creator Callie Khouri. “Huge thanks to all the wonderful #Nashies out there and all who supported a #nashville S3!” she wrote.

Sam Palladio, who plays Gunnar Scott, added: “It lives!!! @Nashville_ABC will get round 3! Thank you to everyone involved who made the magic and music happen!”

Fans of the show look forward to hearing it’s talented cast sing fantastic country music songs. But it hasn’t been all smooth sailing in the show’s music-department either. T Bone Burnett, Hollywood’s prolific producer for soundtracks and musicians (i.e. Elton John, Lisa Marie Presley), gave a candid interview to The Hollywood Reporter about his turbulent time serving as the show’s music producer.

Nashville was created and executive produced by Khouri, Burnett’s wife, and she knew to look no further than to her partner to find someone with serious skills in the areas of country music and the music business in general.

For the show’s second season, Burnett stepped down from his music producer role after having different visions than what the network had for the show.

“Some people were making a drama about real musicians’ lives, and some were making a soap opera, so there was that confusion,” Burnett said. “It was a knockdown, bloody, drag-out fight, every episode.”

Buddy Miller, who was a music producer on the series’ first season alongside Burnett, stepped in as the music supervisor for Season 2.

There were also rumors that the other leading star, Connie Britton, was also unhappy with the direction of the show, plus some of the Nashville-based crew was let go without the studio notifying them beforehand. Between all these rumors/factors, no wonder people thought the show might not go on. But if you consider this one of your favorite shows, you can now breathe easy and rejoice.